All Good Things Must Come to an End
by BeThePiano
Summary: She's the love of his life. He's known this since he was only eight years old. His life with her only shows how right he was. [AmeBel, America/Belarus one-shot. K for mild implications of sex. Implied PruCan, but with Fem!Prussia.]


She's five and he's six and they meet for the first time in Preschool.

He uses her crayons without asking, and what comes after that lands them both sitting on the sidewalk by the teacher during recess. She glares at him and he glares back through silver-framed glasses that catch the sunlight now and then. The teacher snaps at them and tells them to stop looking at each other, that they're in trouble and that she doesn't need them to get into another fight on the first day of school. Slowly but surely, they becomes friends and he shares his snacks with her and she permits him to use her crayons without her throwing sloppily aimed punches at him.

She's seven and he's eight and she's in first grade and he's in second and they only ever get to see each other in the halls.

He waves at her when she's going to art class and she waves back when he's going to the library. She makes friends with a quiet Lithuanian boy in her class and he makes friends with a stuffy British boy in his. They begin to forget each other, and he doesn't want to forget because even at eight years old he's sure he's found the love of his life. He disappears from the back of her mind never to be thought of again until she sees him in the halls every few weeks, only to vanish not even an hour later.

She's eleven and he's twelve and she's in sixth grade and he's in seventh and they see each other in gym class and lunch.

She's still friends with the Lithuanian boy and he's still friends with the British boy, and his group of friends has expanded from just a Brit, to a German, a Japanese, and his Canadian step-brother from when his mother remarried. She managed to keep her one friend from the first grade and she's more than sure he has a crush on her but she doesn't say anything, because there's still that stupid American boy from Preschool still lingering in the back of her mind. He hears about the crush the other boy has on her, and he can't help but get all flustered and jealous over it.

She's thirteen and he's fourteen and she's still one year behind him and he's still one year above her and they still see each other in gym or at lunch.

Their hormones are kicking in as well as their friends, and his pals can't help but pick out which girl they think is cute, or who should date who, but he's still stuck on that temperamental Belarusian girl from his earlier school years. A dorky middle school dance held in the old high school cafeteria where they hold detention comes up, and he tries and tries to come up with the courage to ask her, and it dawns on him that even with his superior confidence he's never felt more nervous than when he's thinking of her. But he gains his courage too late and she's already said yes to her only friend. He decides to go stag with his friends who also don't have anyone to go with, and he sees her smile when her friend dances with two left feet, and he thinks her smile is beautiful and that she should do it more often.

She's fifteen and he's sixteen and she's in the ninth grade and he's in tenth, and he's failing his English classes, and she's exceeded her teacher's expectations, so she tutors him for more than half of the school year.

She and her only friend are dating and he's as jealous as ever but he only wants her to be happy. They grow closer and soon she has another friend and he's gained yet another. She helps him with book reports on classic books and helps him study for his tests in empty classrooms every Wednesday and Friday. In that same empty English classroom during lunch on a Friday when her boyfriend is outside, he kisses her when she's in the middle of reading an excerpt from _The Great Gatsby_ and she's completely stunned and her face is red and she calmly shuts the book and puts it back on the desk. She tells him she has a boyfriend and he nods and says "_I know_" and she just stares at him before slinging her bag over her shoulder and walking out of the classroom. He sits there until the bell rings with his hands in his hair, muttering "_I fucked up, I fucked up, I fucked up_" to himself more times than he can count and he knows he's lost her for good.

Another year has gone by and she's recently turned sixteen and it's been a few months since he's turned seventeen, and they're still one grade apart.

She broke up with her boyfriend last June, and they're on good terms, but she's practically friendless and sits in class alone and only talks to others when they feel the need to talk to her. He notices this and tries to see if she'll give him another chance and she does and he invites her into his group of friends. They're weary of her at first, but the moment she cracks a joke about the German's ego, they're nearly falling over with laughter and they accept her as one of their own and once again he's more than sure he's found the only girl he'll ever love. She's smiling more than ever and he's starting to become fond of the way the corners of her mouth turn up, or how her almost violet eyes shine when she's hanging out with them. By Christmas break, the two are a couple and he's so excited the moment she says okay, that he picks her up by the waist and spins her around while kissing her full on the mouth for the second time. He asks her if she'll be his date for junior prom and she tells him "_Why wouldn't I be?_" and her sister takes pictures of them before while her brother is glaring at him the entire time, making him sweat in his tux, and before they leave, her brother is telling him that if he hurts his little sister that will be the end of him. She's wearing one of her sister's hand-me-down dresses that had to be adjusted at the bust, but it fits nonetheless and he thinks she looks absolutely beautiful.

It's May, and he's in twelfth grade at eighteen and she's in eleventh at seventeen and they have sex for the first time in the back of his truck by the lake.

It's awful and clumsy and sweaty and by the end of it, she's lost her underwear under his seat and she has to sneak home through her bedroom window without them. For her junior, his senior, prom, they stay at home, watching movies and eating popcorn and she's fallen asleep on his shoulder by eleven o'clock, so he carries her up to her room and kisses her goodnight before her sister hugs him goodbye while her brother only shakes his hand. When he gets home that night his brother is forced to listen to him gush about her and how he plans on marrying her one day, and that's when his brother brings up the problem that he's graduating in less than a week and that he's supposed to go to college while she stays here to endure another year of school. This makes his mood hang low until his graduation day when he's wearing a cap and a gown and she's there in the bleachers sitting by his family who've come to love her. When it's over, he's hugging her by his truck and she's crying for the first time in a long time, getting his shirt wet and his head is resting on hers and he can't help but cry a little, too. He tells her how he'll come back every chance he gets and he'll call and email and text her when he can't. By early August his family and her's are helping him pack up his things so he can go off to college on a science scholarship, and everyone's getting choked up because they don't want him to leave, and it's a surprise to everyone when her brother grabs him in a man hug, telling him that he's thankful he's made his sister so happy.

He's in college and she's in her final year of school, and they decided that no matter what that their long distance relationship will work out.

And it does because he's kept his promises of visiting, but he misses her own graduation but it's okay because she made sure to get it on video like he asked her to, and when he comes home for the summer, they watch it and he tells her how proud of her he is. A feeling inside her is welling up and about to boil over and she's faced with having to tell him that she can't go to his college because that's not what she wants. They get in a fight and soon they're yelling at each other and their voices grow hoarse and for a week they don't talk to each other until he arrives on her doorstep with flowers telling her he's sorry and she tells him it's her fault. He takes her out on a date, and subconsciously he's looking at the fourth finger on her left hand, trying to see what size ring would fit on her, and when he catches himself doing so he can't help but go pink in the face and when she asks him what's wrong he says "_Nothing_" and she's tempted to believe him but she doesn't.

They're both in college now, two states away from each other, and their roommates tease them about how they're so in love when they hear their late night video calls.

She's majoring in Literature with Dickens and Shakespeare, and he's majoring in Astronomy with Copernicus and Galileo. Between their classes and finals and important projects, they start having less and less time to text or call but that's okay because when it's all over they're having fun instead of stressing out, and they're laughing instead of having near panic attacks. She's excelling in her classes, and he's become one of his professors favourites and their college years are ending but it seems like they've only just started. They come home along with his brother and they have a welcome home party and for the second time since they were in high school they're at it again when he takes her on another date and it's hardly better than the last time. After they're done and dressed they're sitting on the tailgate of his truck he's had for a while and he's pointing out constellations and she's repeating poetry and it's probably one of the most memorable nights they've ever had.

They've been dating for nearly nine years and he decides it's time for him to make a move so he goes out and buys a ring he can afford.

She doesn't suspect a thing but she starts to wonder why he's pushing her into the bedroom of their shared apartment, telling her to get ready in her nicest outfit. She looks stunning when she comes out, and they're both dressed to the nines and he's taking her out to a fancy restaurant and there's sparkling champagne. She finally asks him what's up and his hand is sweating in his pocket where the ring is and he's thinking, "_What if she says no?_" but the moment he gets down on one knee everyone in the restaurant has their eyes on them and she gasps and puts a hand to her mouth. When she gets over her shock and replies with a "_Yes_" and a "_Why not?_" everyone's clapping and cheering. When they start to tell everyone, his buddies clap in him on the back and tell him they're happy for him and their families couldn't be more proud (especially when only a few months later his brother decided to propose to a pale German girl he met in college). They wait for a while until they start to plan out the wedding and it takes a while but the moment he sees her in the middle of the aisle and she sees him at the end they fall in love all over again.

They've been married for a year now, and her clothes are becoming tighter around the middle and he's ecstatic to find out they're going to have a little on on the way.

They manage to scrape up enough money from his teaching job and her own job as an author to move out of their apartment and into a two bedroom house on the other side of town. They have more than enough fun decorating the extra room in all kinds of colors when they find out they're going to have a little girl and they have endless conversations about whose eyes or noes she'll have. She gets a hold of a few naming books from the library and her weird and awkward cravings make him laugh more than her more severe than usual mood swings that make it seem like she's about to strangle him one moment and then hug him the next. But when they're holding their little bundle of joy they decided to name Vera in their arms the whole nine months seem worth it. She stays up half the night taking care of her until he tells her to go to bed and they watch their little girl grow up and start school and she laughs when he starts to worry if she'll get picked on but it's her reassurance that puts them to rest.

They've been married for more than twenty years and they're watching their oldest graduate while their youngest is sitting there next to them.

And only a few short years, they're watching their son grow up and receive his diploma and their not-so-little-anymore girl get engaged and married and they realize they're getting older and older and that they're children aren't as dependent on them anymore. They're both close to fifty, and it's starting to show through gray hairs peeking through his blonde and a few laugh lines and wrinkles around her mouth. It crosses her mind now and again that Death will come knocking in a few decades, but he abruptly pushes that thought out of her head by making her feel young again by replaying her graduation tape and their wedding tape. He pops home movies shot by himself into the tape player starring her hand flying up to cover the lens and her protests to "_Get that damn camera out of my face_" and his laughter can be heard in the background. They see their children grow up in a few short minutes and it's both at the back of their minds that they miss them and hope they'll visit soon. They're happy again when they come by with five grandchildren in all, three little boys and two little girls who love to come over and like it when she teaches them Russian.

They're both in their sixties now, and they're as joyful and alive as when they were teenagers.

They don't fight as often, because they know that they're stuck with each other at this age and they say "_I love you_" more often. Their hair is gray and their bones creak when they move and they're taking more pills by the day, and it was only time before she fell and had to go to the hospital, friends and family and neighbors surrounding her bed. He stays in the chair beside her most of the time, talking to her and reading the poetry books from her college years and watching her sleep until he's asked to go home because visiting hours are over and they don't want him to be there if she goes.

Only, it's worse when he's not there because they call him and he drives to the hospital as fast as he can and they tell him the news again and their whole family, siblings, children, and grandchildren are weeping and sobbing but he can only stand there in shock. He helps plan out her funeral, the light finally gone from his eyes and he's no longer cracking jokes but instead he's locked himself up and Alfred is no longer the exuberant, smiling, head over heels in love man he once was when Natalya was in his life.

–

**I changed up my writing style a bit to make it seem like someone was telling a story, so that's why there are so many run on sentences :P Also, Vera is my head canon name for their daughter because why not. But yeah anyways, here's a little list of the people mentioned in no particular order:**

Alfred/America

**Natalya/Belarus**

**Ivan/Russia**

**Katyusha/Ukraine**

**Gilbert/Prussia**

**Matthew/Canada**

**Arthur/England**

**Julchen/Fem!Prussia**

**Kiku/Japan**

**Toris/Lithuania**

**Feedback would be nice! :)**


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